SC Rejects Maulana Aziz’s Appeal to Enforce Sharia Law in Pakistan

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has rejected Lal Masjid’s cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz’s petition for the implementation of Sharia Law in Pakistan.

The cleric had filed a constitutional petition in the Supreme Court under the Article 184 (3) of the Constitution, on December 10, 2015. In the petition, Aziz pleaded with the court to direct the federal and provincial governments to comply with Article 2-A to exercise the authority of the people within the limits prescribed by Allah Almighty.

The petitioner also contended that the only solution to eliminate the evils and challenges in the realms of national security, societal cohesion, national economy, facing war of terrorism and political instable condition of Pakistan is to enforce Shariah law in the country.

Now the SC assistant registrar (civil) has returned Maulana Aziz’s constitutional petition by raising three
objections.

The Islamic Sharia Law is the basic Islamic legal system derived from the religious precepts of Islam, particularly the Quran and the Hadith. The term sharia comes from the Arabic language term sharīʿah, which means a body of moral and religious law derived from religious prophecy, as opposed to human legislation

Sharia deals with many topics, including crime, politics, marriage contracts, trade regulations, religious prescriptions, and economics, as well as personal matters such as sexual intercourse, hygiene, diet, prayer, everyday etiquette and fasting. Adherence to sharia has served as one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Muslim faith historically. In its strictest definition, sharia is considered in Islam as the infallible law of God.

Most Muslim-majority countries incorporate sharia at some level in their legal framework, with many calling it the highest law or the source of law of the land in their constitution. Most use sharia for personal law (marriage, divorce, domestic violence, child support, family law, inheritance and such matters). Elements of sharia are present, to varying extents, in the criminal justice system of many Muslim-majority countries. Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Brunei, Qatar, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan and Mauritania apply the code predominantly or entirely while it applies in some parts of Indonesia.